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Clinton vs. Iran

From NBC's Andrea MitchellIn the administration's sharpest break from the president's initial policy of engaging Iran, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today harshly rebutted Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations.

In her speech, she said that this morning's speech by Iran's president offered the same "tired false accusations." She added, "Iran will do whatever it can to evade responsibility."

Threatening tougher sanctions, she said, "Ultimately, we will all be judged not by our words but by our actions. The onus is on Iran."

According to Clinton, "Iran is the only country in this hall found by the IAEA board of governors not to be in compliance with U.N. safeguard obligations. It has defied the Security Council and the IAEA."

(The IAEA is the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency.)

Clinton said that is why Iran is facing increasing pressure from the rest of the world, but she said, "Iran will not succeed in its attempts to divert and divide."

Clinton said that the Obama administration will retain nuclear weapons as a deterrent as long as they exist elsewhere, but that she was today revealing the number of U.S. weapons in its stockpile. (The numbers were previously classified.)

She also pledged millions more to help states get peaceful nuclear energy and steps to turn the Middle East into a nuclear-free zone.

"I call on Iran to join with the other delegations to go ahead and fulfill our obligations to build a safer world," she said, "rather than focusing on our differences we must acknowledge we are all in this together."